Why More Senior Living Facilities Should Accept Pets

In 2007, David M. Dosa, M.D., M.P.H., a geriatrician at Rhode Island Hospital, wrote an essay, “A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat,” about a special 2-year-old feline living at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I.

In many ways, Oscar sounds like the prototypical cat, who wanders the halls, snuggles when he's feeling affectionate and naps regularly.

Why Pets Are So Important

While Oscar provides daily companionship, as well as astonishing end-of-life comfort at his Rhode Island hospital, most pets who live or visit independent or assisted senior living facilities also play important roles in their communities.

Beck’s background reads a bit like a history on the subject: After several stints at places like John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — he studied the ecology of stray dogs in Baltimore with an NIH grant while there — and the New York Health Department to run their animal program, Beck absconded to the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school, which had just received a first-ever grant to study human-animal interactions at the time.

“The idea of actually studying what happens between animals and people was a new idea,” he explains. “At least half of the veterinary schools in North America now have programs, centers or units that look at what’s going on with humans and animals together." Today, even the AARP recommends dog ownership as a primary way to stay healthy if you're an older individual.